


Inevitable

by Ralkana



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ficlet, Grief/Mourning, Jossed, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 11:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ralkana/pseuds/Ralkana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People expected Clint to fall apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inevitable

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer ~ Marvel's, not mine.

 

People expected Clint to fall apart.

They expected him to slip into a spiral of drunken grief, a bottomless pit of anguish and rage, to lash out and destroy the remnants of his life that weren’t already in pieces.

They expected him to run, drop everything and flee, to give up, in his sorrow and guilt, everything he’d worked for.

They did not expect him to pass his days calm and dry-eyed, to move to the tower without complaint, to wordlessly help with the cleanup, to report for duty when SHIELD called, check his weapons, and get the job done.

He saw the puzzled looks, the confusion in their eyes, the way they shook their heads at him when they thought he couldn’t see. (He saw everything.)

“Guess he really didn’t care after all,” they said, and, “How can someone be that cold?”

He heard it all, and he ignored it and focused on the work. They thought they knew him, but they never had.

The only one who ever had was gone.

Nothing good lasted for long in his life. It never had -- that was fact. He’d had plenty of proof, and he never should have expected otherwise, not when it came to the best thing he’d ever been given.

Memories were all he had now, clear blue eyes shining with love — with _pride_ — and a voice in his ear that had said, “Good job, Barton.”

And if he had to whisper it to himself now when the job was done, he would, until the end of his days. He wasn’t going to do anything to tarnish the memory of that pride, not when it was all he had left.


End file.
